The passion oratorio La morte di Cristo is one of the most unusual works attributed to Johann Adolf Hasse. Previously, Reinhard Strohm had revealed that the oratorio is actually a pasticcio, with most of the arias borrowed from operas written around 1730 by Hasse, Leo, Porta, and others. Recently, a newly discovered libretto entitled La Vittima d’amore ossia la morte di Cristo confirms the work was originally created in Brno in 1741 and later performed in Prague in 1744. The Brno Kapellmeister Josef Umstatt likely compiled the work and adapted the arias, and he was probably responsible for composing the oratorio’s sinfonia, recitatives, and final chorus. The sources for three of the arias in La morte di Cristo still remain unidentified, either because the sources have been lost, or because Umstatt himself composed one or more of them specifically for the new oratorio.

Works: Josef Umstatt (attributed to Johann Adolf Hasse): La Vittima d’amore ossia la morte di Cristo.

Sources: Johann Adolf Hasse: Siroe (263, 266), Issipile (266-67); Giovanni Battista Pescetti: I tre difensori della patria (263-64, 266); Antonio Caldara: Morte e sepoltura di Cristo (265-66); Leonardo Leo: Argeno (266), Demetrio (266); Giovanni Porta: Farnace (266); Francesco Feo: Ipermestra (266).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Matthew G. Leone